What’s in a Name?

New seed catalog time has come, and Husband and I chose and ordered our selections for this year’s garden. Husband always researches the varieties carefully and chooses based on length of growing season, disease resistance, past successes, and past failures. I don’t think he ever chooses based on the name of the variety. It seems like a lot of effort goes into finding catchy names to entice us to buy one variety over another.

I wonder how they arrive at the names? I like it when a plant is named for a person-Big Jim Peppers or Queen Elizabeth Hybrid Tea Roses. Some names speak to productivity, such as Mortgage Lifter tomatoes or Lazy Housewife pole beans. Why, though, would you name a variety of celeriac Mars? There isn’t anything particularly warlike about that humble root vegetable. Flower names get pretty fanciful, such as Double Scoop Bubble Gum Echinacea.

I wondered what names Baboons could come up with if they were to name some plants, so that is today’s challenge.

Come up with some clever names for varieties of flowers, trees, vegetables, shrubs, or even weeds I will get us started with my choice of Dead Man Walking American Elm.

Is Apollo a relatively new company, Ben? My memory of gel books (I still have them, because I think they are so pretty) was that Lee was the British company, and then there was something else that was the American one.

The colors all had numbers as well as names (not sure they all had names), and then there were some unofficial names, the most memorable of which was “why bother blue”, which was practically clear.

Yes, Apollo doesn’t have the standing that Lee and Rosco have.
And it’s tough to break into the market as well. Here in the midwest, it’s hard to get Apollo gel. I can get it drop shipped, but most theater supply houses carry all the Lee and Rosco.
Gam is another company with some nice gel, but it’s hard to get.
Yep, most people just go by the number.

When I first started it was ‘Roscolene’ and it melted and faded fast. Rosco-lux was just coming out.
Most all the colors stand up to the heat better these days. Course the dark colors still melt and burn (because they’re absorbing all the heat.)
It makes me laugh, there’s 24 shades of blue in the book and only a couple I really like.
750 watts behind a blue color washes it out fast. Takes a nice rich blue to look good.
Gam 915, Twilight, is a favorite but it’s got a hint of purple too it. Rosco 2006, Storaro Azure, is my newest favorite; just a nice thick blue.
R73, peacock blue is one of my favorites. Rosco 3313 is my ‘Go-To’ front light gel, it’s just a little pink called “Tough 1/2 Minusgreen” meaning it pulls some of the green wavelength out.

There are some glass “colorizers” that go into the middle of the light fixture. They’re more expensive, but last almost indefinitely. I’ve got a couple dozen of them.
A sheet of gel measures 21″ x 24″ and costs about $8-$10 / sheet. Then I cut the size I need for that particular fixture. Might be 7 1/2″ square, or 5 1/4″ or 10″. Seems like I always end up with a 2″ strip I’m throwing away. I have fixtures that take 3″, but they’re not used enough to justify all the scraps I end up with.

I still do this frequently. Just ordered 22 sheets of a couple colors. 10 of the pink because I use it often. And then 3 or 4 sheets of some colors I wanted for this show. (“Bald Soprano” opens tonight.)

Yeah, tim, with LED’s now, it’s using a ‘color picker’ on the computerized lightboard to tell it what color I want.
Some of the fancier moving light fixtures have dichroic color wheels built in.

New lighting fixtures use glass reflectors at the back, so that allows heat to come out the back, rather than reflected out the front. So a gel lasts longer than they used to. I can reuse a pink gel for hundreds of cycles. The darker colors don’t last as long, but still they are reusable.

The glass ones are more unique or specialized colors or looks.
I have some glass patterns custom made of the college logo. They’ve been in use for 8 years maybe? But not on 24/7 or anything. They’re not colored, just the image. I color it with a gel in front. I’ve replaced the gel once I think.

Ah, Rosco, of course!
So gobos are glass now? How does that work. I remember them as cut metal. The lamp heat could fry those too, but I have a very pretty one of the Chrysler Building that was very artistically discolored by the heat.

I suppose that once you get the hang of it, naming anything would be fun. At the moment, I don’t think I would last long doing that, however, if the current lack of brain activity in my head is any indication.

i remember charles kerault having a tulip named after him by a tulip enthusiast in the northeast and so he went to see it the year after he retired.

i thought that was cool

people who mess with apples and orchids and hosta to develop special strains get the right to name them
i am guessing if that were my arena i could do it with reckless abandon
i remember once being asked to have input from my perspective on foam and or fiberglass flowerpot designs
they were coming up with butterflies and hummingbirds in gold and bronze
i was submitting architectural designs like you see around the tops of buildings and around windows especially in the 30’s and 40’s art deco stuff too
in flowers and vegetables i imagine i would see if there were names available like shrinking violets
i’ve got to take a “pea”
little boy “blueberries”
neil diamond cherry “cherry”
stymies wish i had a “watermelon”
me and my fiancé “cantaloupe”
i had a dream “a black rose”
puff the magic “snapdragon”
marilyn monroe tulips

Some new car debuted in the seventies with choice of colors featured in the ads. But the color names were racially offensive. You can guess for yellow and red. They quickly changed the names. I think it was that short squat AMC car. Cannot remember its name. Names of cars are interesting. I drive a Scion. What is it called in Japan?

Murdock Ragweed
Putin Runner Bean It sends out its vines taking control of other plants, notably the Trump Thistle, a noxious weed which thrives in manure
Renee Rhododendron A reliable producer of beautiful blooms
Verilee Veritas Violet

The flower shop where I work has floral arrangements named with artistic names. Some of them are named by the national organization, some of them locally. One of the designers at our shop made an arrangement with tied clusters of roses, for which I suggested the name “The Ties That Bind”. I’m not sure if that will be the final selection. We’ll see.

Apple’s logo and the letter I was pure genius – – – – or dumb luck. I am very aware of the I today. I bought a new Ipad. I lost my little Ipod Nano, which was an important item for me when I wait for Sandy when she is at medical appointments, social or church events or shopping. It is very painful to stand and to walk as much as 50 yards. So I sit and wait. The Nano had only 8GB and the battery was wearing down. I have used it hard for seven years. A new Ipod would cost me about $200. With another 200 I got an Ipad 5 with 128. It is wonderful. But today I have been on WordPress with my computer and with both Ipads. WP is spinning in circles. It keeps requiring me to login every time I switch platforms.
Three doctors want me to try four drugs. The four drugs, with all the appeals and discounts I can get, would cost me per year $1100, $1200, $2900, and $3400. Three are of dubious value. So instead I bought the Ipad.